To protect military personnel during combat, military vehicles are provided with layers of armor. In some vehicles, the armor may be provided on the vehicle in the factory during manufacture of the vehicle. However, it has become increasingly common for armor to be applied to existing vehicles in the field.
The military started adding armor to its High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or “HMMWV” or “Humvee,” well before Operation Iraqi Freedom, but attacks from small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and “improvised explosive devices,” or IEDs in military parlance, prompted the military to increase protection for vehicles already in the field. The “up-armored” HMMWV can weigh thousands of pounds more than the standard HMMWV and includes several hundred pound steel-plated doors. Such heavy armored doors make opening and closing the doors increasingly difficult for personnel.
There is a need for a mechanism to assist with moving heavy armored doors on military vehicles. There is also a need for such mechanisms to be able to retrofit to existing vehicles that are up-armored in the field.